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ESPNTheMag.Com Presents: All-World Power Rankings

Who/what is the least loyal sports figure of all-time?

by Amanda Ozment

Getty Images
Benedict Damon.

LEAST LOYAL SPORTS FIGURE EVER? LOT OF CHOICES. HOW ABOUT JOHNNY DAMON?

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On May 1st, 2005 Johnny Damon said "there's no way I can go play for the Yankees, but I know they are going to come after me hard." Maybe Brett Favre should send Johnny Damon an e-card so that he knows, heretofore, that May 1st is Loyalty Day. In the meantime, we've decided that, in honor of America's 51st annual celebration of loyalty, it might be fun to rank the least loyal sports figures of all time, and guess who tops the list?

TOP 5
RANK (YESTERDAY) WHAT WHY
1 (145) JOHNNY DAMON Perhaps he wanted the citizens of Boston to know how his first wife felt when, just seven months after making above-cited promise to the city of Boston, he traded in his red sox for pinstripes, then apologized via a full page ad in the Boston Globe.
2 (102) THE 1919 BLACK SOX Um, they threw the World Series.
3 (84) ERIC MANGINI He ducked out from under Bill Belichick's wing to take a head coaching position with the enemy Jets…then he ratted his former mentor out to league officials and Spygate was born.
4 (71) NICK SABAN Nick Saban once said, "I guess I have to say it. I'm not going to be the Alabama coach." Imagine everyone's surprise when, three weeks later he left for Alabama. In hindsight, it appears that Saban had been using the Miami Dolphins as a 2-year buffer zone between SEC rivals LSU and Alabama all along. According to Saban, though, his heart was in the right place.
5 (920) ROBERT IRSAY Robert Irsay was surely acting on the assumption that, if nobody saw them leave, nobody would notice that they were gone when he waited until nightfall before he packed the Baltimore Colts into a convoy of moving vans and took off for Indianapolis. Surprisingly, he was wrong.

HONORABLE MENTION
RANK (YESTERDAY) WHAT WHY
12 (404) CARLOS BOOZER In 2004 he promised the Cavs that, if they released him to free agency, he would sign a new, six-year contract. They released him, he signed with the Utah Jazz instead and, five years later, Cleveland's front office is still waiting for Ashton Kutcher to jump out from behind the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
28 (99) BOBBY PETRINO Thirteen games into the season, amidst the Michael Vick scandal, he left the Falcons for the Razorbacks. In other words, he's kinda like Nick Saban minus the histrionics.

RISING AND FALLING
MOVEMENT WHAT
MANNY RAMIREZ (Ha, he almost went to the Giants this year.)
PETE ROSE (Hey, at least his heart was in the right place.)


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